Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett is under fire for failing to get a yard in three chances Sunday during a critical drive against the New York Giants. / Tim Heitman, U.S. Presswire

by Mike Garafolo, USA TODAY Sports

by Mike Garafolo, USA TODAY Sports

IRVING, Texas â?? The Dallas Cowboys needed only one yard and had three plays to get it for a first down to extend their drive late in the fourth quarter against the New York Giants on Sunday.

Pass, pass, pass.

Incomplete, incomplete, incomplete.

It was the drive before Dez Bryant's fingertips came down out of bounds, so the sequence didn't get as much scrutiny in the immediate aftermath of the Giants' 29-24 victory on Sunday. But on Monday, head coach Jason Garrett was forced to defend the coaching staff's decisions.

"They were pretty committed to stopping the run. I don't know if you saw the game but we ran it 17 times for 19 yards," Garrett said. "It was obviously pretty difficult for us to run the football throughout the game, and they did a good job committing to defending the run. Obviously, we threw the football really, really well in a lot of different situations in the game. We got into a couple of those situations and what got called, got called.

"We missed one of the throws, we had another one that was a near-miss. And ultimately on the fourth down, they had a good stop."

On the first of the three throws, which came on a second-and-1 with 1:23 to play, tight end Jason Witten was open to the outside of Giants linebacker Michael Boley, but quarterback Tony Romo missed him wide. One play later, Romo went for the go-ahead touchdown on a fade to Kevin Ogletree that cornerback Prince Amukamara covered well.

And on fourth-and-1, the Giants' coaches and players came up huge at the right time.

Romo began by looking in the direction of receiver Miles Austin in the left slot, either to see if Austin was going to beat rookie cornerback Jayron Hosley or to try fooling the Giants' defense into thinking he wasn't looking for Witten again. But by the time all of his targets were coming out of their break, Romo was locked on Witten, who was being bracketed by Boley on one side and safety Stevie Brown on the other.

Romo backpedaled to try buying time but, while under pressure from Osi Umenyiora, he eventually had to heave a pass Brown intercepted.

"Well there are a lot of options on the play. Witten is certainly an option," Garrett said. "They tried to double him a lot of different ways throughout the ballgame. He was pretty successful in getting himself open. The outside guys were winning as well. Miles was winning inside and outside in the ballgame. So Tony has other places to go with the football.

"They did a good job and made a good play in that situation."

The Cowboys clearly thought Witten could see his way through another double team. They were incorrect, and now Garrett's game management is being questioned as a big reason for why his team is 2Â½ games behind the Giants in the NFC East instead of right on their tails.

"Certainly whenever the play doesn't work, it's easy for us as coaches to look back afterward and say, 'Hey, we should've done something different,'" Garrett said. He added: "If we had an opportunity to call something different that would've allowed us to convert a first down in that situation, we would've done it. That happens in games, that happens in 32 cities around this league. So, unfortunately for us in that situation, it didn't work out."